Khmer Arts Ensemble Creates Stir in NY With Dance Piece Performance

Choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s latest work, “Pamina Devi,” opened at the Joyce Theater in New York City on the evening of Oct 9, amid a flurry of press attention.

Joan Acocella, writing in the New Yorker magazine, said the piece, which is performed by Cheam Shapiro’s 31-member company, the Khmer Arts En­sem­ble, was “clearly a prayer for Cambodia.”

Pamina Devi, Cheam Shapiro’s retelling of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” was commissioned by director Peter Sellars for the Vienna festival commemorating the 250th birthday of this Austrian composer.

Acocella called Pamina Devi “sweet and hopeful.”

“At the end, [Cheam] Shapiro’s heroine refuses to choose between the Queen of the Night (a mother figure) and Sarastro (a father figure). Instead, she sets off into the unknown, to create a just society,” she wrote.

Such work is new terrain for classical Cambodian dance, which is where Cheam Shapiro’s work is rooted. A member of the first graduating class from the Royal Uni­versity of Fine Arts after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Cheam Shapiro uses classical techniques to tell new stories. And she, along with a vanguard of other Cambodian artists, has found that to create new art it’s necessary to forge new systems.

“We need something new. Artists need freedom,” said music composer and pianist Him Sophy. “Before, the control, the money belonged to the Royal Palace, especially with classical dance.  It’s very good, but it’s very conservative.  Artists don’t feel freedom to do something outside, looking forward,” he said.

This January, Cheam Shapiro and her American husband John Shapiro founded the Khmer Arts Ensemble, a permanent dance company based at their 5-acre home in Takhmau town. They employ 31 dancers, musicians and teachers full time.

John Shapiro—who is executive director of the Khmer Arts Aca­de­my which encompasses the company as well as a dance school the couple founded in Long Beach, Ca­lifornia—said he would like to have performances for the Cam­bodian public every year, and create a costume shop, international artist ex­change program, and publishing division as well.

Such big dreams for a dance company are a fiscal non-starter in the US, where dance companies must rely on a combination of ticket sales, donations, and grants to stay afloat.

“We thought about doing this in the United States,” John Shapiro said. “The economics didn’t work out.”

Here, in contrast, working for the Shapiros is a decent financial deal.  Their dancers make more than the base salary of ministry artists, and far more than the minimum wage of garment workers.

The Cambodian government employs about 315 artists in the Ministry of Culture’s performing arts division, paying them $30 to $50 a month plus performance fees, according to Culture Ministry Secretary of State Him Chhem.

Him Chhem said he was not aware of the existence of the Khmer Arts Ensemble, nor had he seen Pamina Devi. But he said he knew Cheam Shapiro by reputation, as a skilled dancer. “Hopefully, she understands clearly the rules of classical dance and won’t do anything wrong,” he said.

When Cheam Shapiro created Pamina Devi in February 2006, the ministry reviewed the ballet for approval and she subsequently modified it as requested.

Culture Ministry Secretary of State Khim Sarith said he was not aware of Cheam Shapiro’s company either and he is wary.

“Yes, absolutely, it is a threat to us because we are not aware yet whether the company will use classical dance in the right forms, style, and foundation,” he said.

Cheam Shapiro, who moved to the US in 1991 and returned to Cambodia last year, said she has no intention of ditching Cambodia’s rich cultural heritage.

“We believe our teachers’ spirits are watching us, to make sure we respect the dance and aren’t fooling around,” she said. “My approach is to take two steps forward and one step back.”

Their five-city US tour ends on Oct 26.

 

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